Friday, October 15, 2010

Living In Town

Astoria is such a charming town, but I doubt I’d enjoy living there because of all the noise. I written before about the how the town is laid out like a giant amphitheater and how the sounds of the sirens of emergency vehicles can be heard all along the hillsides they travel from Smith Point all the way to nearly Tongue Point. The there are the sounds of the sea lions. Their barking can be heard echoing from every structure. Then there is the noise of the ships which is a quiet drone however their fog horns really blast away. I can hear them where I live, which is several miles away.

Living in town you can hear all the loud cars and trucks straining their engines ascending 8th and 16th streets. Let’s not forget about the scraping of their under-carriages on the road as their vehicles land after catching air at each intersection.

I was delivering honey on the hillside the other day when I became aware of the new sound of the dredge. It isn’t just sand but giant rocks and boulders being dumped into steel barges. All day and all night to poor people on the north- slope have to endure this racket.

Yes, dredging is important work for river navigation, but I feel badly for the people that have to endure the racket.

Another reason I wouldn’t want to live in town is because I have yet to speak to anyone living here that doesn’t have complaints about a crazy neighbor. There are some that are either too kind to complain about a crazy neighbor or they are the crazy neighbors.

The complaints I hear range from neighbors that feed raccoons, or have crazy dogs that never shut up, or obnoxious kids. It seems every one has a drug dealer as a neighbor where cars come and go all night long. There are neighbors that don’t keep up their yards.

Though the people that have now moved out by me would be better suited for city life, it’s still better than living in town. Soon I will be planting more trees which will make it even better.